Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery looking at the Soho area of London through the lens of seven photographers from the 1960s to today. The commentary links the timing of the show to the “imminent completion of Crossrail … in autumn 2019” which seems a little ironic and was obviously written a while ago. But is does rightly point out that this is changing the area as it become a prime target for redevelopment. My favourite works were those from the 1960s by Kelvin Brodie showing street scenes and police raids, as shown here, and John Goldblatt who photographed the dressing rooms of strip clubs. I loved their gritty realism. I also liked William Klein’s work from 1986 looking at 24 hours in the life of the area.   Corinne Day’s pictures from 2003 focused on her friend’s taken in her flat in the area and Gebler Davies work from 1998 looked at the Colony Room Club. It was a nice touch to have commissioned new work from Daragh Soden which looked at Soh

Interesting exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery of photographs taken of Soho in the 1950s and 1960s by John Deakin. Deakin had been a photographer for Vogue but in his spare time photographers the people around him in Soho many of whom became his friends. These included many of the leading artists of the day including Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon and Frank Auerbach. The pictures had an air of louche glamour. I loved one picture of the artists in a restaurant in which Bacon was looking cheerful! Also one of Bacon posing with 2 sides of a dead pig ie Bacon with bacon but also now has overtones of Damien Hirst! There were also nice ones of the people who worked in pubs, clubs and restaurants at the time. Review Evening Standard